Kitchen Garden Forum

There may be a lot of gas down there, but I must admit my views are coloured by the fact that the big reserves to be exploited first are under the Fylde in Lancashire in the fields I used to wander as a child

Gas fracking: Ministers approve shale gas extraction

Alan, I think fracking is a dangerous procedure near such populated and environmentally sensitive area as Morecambe Bay. In the US, I believe it has been successfully carried out far away from dense populations, but, as we live in an area where occasional landslips in the Craven geological fault cause very minor earth disturbances at times, I think frracking should not be used where it is proposed.

My money is still on wind and water power as the future.

Also being near the Craven fault and even nearer some minor fault lines that brought coal near enough the surface to interest early miners I am not that keen. I wonder why we under invest in water power when so much money has gone into wind (perhaps it comes naturally to politicians). Not just the often talked about but never completed barrages for tidal power, how about small turbines. The early industrial revolution was powered by water, if every stream that used to run a mill of some sort had a turbine in it instead how much power would be produced?

The uk is far more densely populated than the US so I don't think the same rules can apply. I'd be mildly in favour in areas where there are no populations but I think the procedure is still very untested and the repercussions could result in geological faults occurring far away from the actual mining sites. In view of predicted energy shortfalls in the future I think we have to be open minded about sources of home grown energy rather than relying on imported supplies but I'm also unsure whether I trust our politicians to get it right. They're not doing a particularly good job in other areas right now.

I am. Anything that makes us less dependant on foreign powers.

Cheers, Tony.

New York City Department of Environmental Protection sign.

They don't want fracking there

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/news/n ... _dep.shtml